


Hello, You

by aruhime



Category: VICTON (Band)
Genre: A bird - Freeform, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Ugly, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:14:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27939504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aruhime/pseuds/aruhime
Summary: “You?” Sejun stared at the emo boy, scanning his attire from head to toe, high-key judging. “You sure don't look like a lovebird owner at all. Maybe crow, yes—”“Hey, do you know what you look like, then?”“What?”The blond snickered. “A jerk.”Sejun gasped.
Relationships: Do Hanse/Im Sejun, Heo Chan/Kang Seungsik, side relationship - Relationship
Comments: 7
Kudos: 38
Collections: VICFEST®—round two!





	Hello, You

**Author's Note:**

> **Based on prompt #011:  
>  Person A finds an exotic bird thats way too friendly with humans in the park, while person B runs around frantically trying to find his pet lovebird that escaped.**  
>   
> Hi!! I'll be honest I'm not confident with this piece at all ;;w;;  
> I hope I did the prompt justice ;;w;;

**For** the record, Sejun never had any pet before. Not even a fish. So, if he was sitting upright in a very awkward position now, both his hands were on his lap, cold sweat running down under his shirt—it was definitely not his fault. It was this goddamn bird's fault.

The lack of interaction with any pet was the main reason why Sejun didn't dare to touch the bright coloured bird that currently resting on his shoulder, its eyes blinked cutely. The bird was so _tiny_ , Sejun didn't want to accidentally crush it with his hand. ( _Not that he could_ , Sejun sighed mentally.

On second thought, _maybe_ he could. He'd been diligently going to the gym nowadays.)

Anyway, in short, there was this lovebird hanging out on Sejun's shoulder now, repeatedly rubbing its tiny head, asking for a pet. And Sejun was scared—no, _slightly_ scared.

If only Subin was here, Sejun groaned. He was better at handling small animals than Sejun. A dog was ok, but _small bird_. Subin would definitely give this poor bird a pet, maybe even brought it back home for a temporary shelter. He would ask Sejun to spread the information about this lost bird, and Sejun would be the one who posted the news all on the student board or something. Yes, Sejun would rather do that—

Besides, Sejun swore that this was not the usual lovebird behaviour. The lovebird was asking for a hardcore petting now—it kept snuggling its head to Sejun's cheek persistently, and Sejun was close to losing his shit.

Five metres away from Sejun's position, Hanse was close to losing his shit, too. This wasn't the first time Vivi ran from Hanse's room, but he was still flustered whenever the cage and the bird-rest were empty. Vivi was a smart bird, he knew that. She definitely knew her way home. Yet, still, it didn't prevent Hanse from panicking. Well, at least it proved that Hanse was a good owner.

Vivi was a smart and cheerful lovebird; Chan gave her to him for his birthday last year. She had the usual mixed green and yellow for her feathers. She somehow could recognize her name; and that was the only reason that kept Hanse from completely breaking down over a lost bird.

The thing was, Vivi was too friendly with everyone. She was easy with strangers. Vivi didn't have a hard time warming up to Hanse a year ago, they quickly bonded over their love for apples.

("She loves apples?" Hanse wheezed, his eyes lighted up in delight.

"She does," Chan smiled, amused.

"Great," Hanse offered a single dice of apples, and Vivi started poking the fruit. " _Very great_. I love her already."

"Good, because if you don't, I will yell at you.")

And now, Hanse was running around the park, carelessly in his thin black shirt and ripped jeans, a box of sliced apples was on his hand, in case Vivi could smell them and decided to fly to Hanse's shoulder. Hopefully. It would be easier that way.

He was five minutes in his search for his lost bird, the apples in his box started to change colour, and Vivi's whereabouts was still unknown.

Hanse was close to tears when he saw someone fidgety with _a lovebird on his shoulder,_ sitting on a bench under a tree. Hanse was far enough from that person, but, even from this distance, Hanse was sure it was Vivi on the person's shoulder because, first, the colour, and second, the bird repeatedly snuggled its head towards the person's cheek. It was definitely a Vivi Thing.

"Vivi!"

Both the person and Vivi the bird turned their head when Hanse was near. Seeing someone familiar, who would definitely give her billion head pats, Vivi chirped happily and flew to Hanse's shoulder. The person looked very glad when she left.

The person was Sejun, of course.

"Is it yours?" He asked.

Hanse, who was busy welcoming his bird back with head pats, remembered that he wasn't alone. He turned to see Sejun, who was busy rubbing and brushing his stiff shoulder. And, as a good owner, Hanse took the offence for Vivi. A "thank you" was actually already on the tip of his tongue, but he stopped. This random stranger was brushing his shoulder so harshly, as if Vivi was a dirty and diseased bird, as if Hanse didn't spend his weekend to clean her cage—

"Yeah, _she_ is."

Sejun stared at the boy, scanning his attire from head to toe, high-key judging. “You sure don't look like a lovebird owner at all. Maybe crow, yes—”

 _Now,_ Hanse took full offencee.

“Hey, do you know what do you look like, then?”

“What?”

Hanse snickered. “A jerk.”

Sejun gasped, his hand stopped rubbing his stiff shoulder. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me the first time," Hanse shrugged and walked away with Vivi on his shoulder. "Bye."

"You're not even going to thank me for keeping it safe?"

"It's a _she!_ "  
  


+++

**Apparently** , Seungsik, Sejun's bestest friend in the whole world, was in a relationship with Chan, who gifted Vivi to Hanse. The world was weird like that. Sejun wondered why he just found out about this when Chan was practically living in their shared room by now.

It went like this: after he furiously giving a finger behind Hanse's back, Sejun went for another lap for his jog, but he couldn't really get his head straight after the argument. Not that he was completely straight either. Anyway, Sejun decided that he got enough laps for that day, and went back home.

He found Seungsik on the couch, making out with Chan, as usual. The first time they did this had made Sejun want to bleach his eyes and memory, but now he was simply didn't care. He slammed the door on his way in, both Seungsik and Chan flinched in surprise.

"Sorry, sorry, Sejun, I don't know you'll be back soon—"

"No, it's not you," Sejun sighed, throwing his water bottle aside. "It's just this shitty guy I met in the park. Please, continue whatever you two are doing just now, don't mind me."

But it wasn't Kang Seungsik if he didn't genuinely concerned by Sejun's bad mood. "What happened?"

"Nah, it's silly—"

"Sejun,"

And Sejun be damned if he could refuse the stern yet soft gaze, somehow a perfect combination for pleading (and bribery, Sejun thought sneakily) and when he silently asked Chan for help, he merely winced in sympathy.

"Fine, _fine_." Sejun slumped down between them. "I meet this guy—"

"Oho, juicy."

"Yeah, as if." Sejun snorted, thinking back about Hanse's glare. "This guy—he managed to lost his pet bird, and I kind of taking care of the said bird because it randomly fled to my shoulder. And this guy came. And he didn't even say thanks, he just left!"

Chan coughed. Sejun gave him a glare.

Sejun spent the rest of the day with Seungsik fussing over him—taking care of the sad baby, Seungsik's words. How Chan didn't even complain was a mystery to Sejun, considering that he was practically interrupting whatever they meant to do earlier. Definitely more than casual making out session, because Sejun saw Seungsik's hand slid under Chan's jeans, not in a very casual way.

After a session of rants, Sejun was comforted that day, thanks to a carton of ice cream and an impromptu movie marathon of Sejun's choice.

He didn't remember any of the incidents after that, nor he met any more loose lovebird when Sejun came back to the park for his jogging routine. As much as he dreaded to meet the emo guy again, he couldn't just ditch his exercise. (Somehow, Sejun remembered the emo guy's appearance, and, besides his light blond hair, Sejun saw tattoos peeking out of the guy's shirt. He got a lip piercing too. Sejun's uncomplicated brain was just immediately called him as "the emo guy.")

Sejun spent a week in peace like that—no birds, no emo guy—until Chan barged in to Seungsik and Sejun's room, laughing. The first thing he did was shouting Sejun's name, which was rare, because he never did that, ever. Moreover, he didn't immediately come in. He was kind of standing between the doorframe, it looked like he hid something.

"Sejun, there's someone who wants to meet you," Chan grinned in the way when he had some evil idea in his head. So, he hid _someone_.

"Who?"

"Come here, he didn't want to come in."

"What is he, a vampire?" Sejun snorted, but he got up from his bed anyway. Chan endured a laugh when Sejun said that. "They can get in by themselves, do I need to say ' _yes, you can come in_ ' so this person can enter? It's ridiculous—oh."

Of course, it was Hanse who was on the other side of the door. He was just like what Sejun remembered; blond hair down to his nape, he wore another black shirt and ripped jeans. There was a dab of lip gloss on his lips, and somewhat Sejun could imagine Hanse as a vampire. A very cat-like vampire who was now looked annoyed for some reason.

After the small 'oh', Sejun didn't say any more words. Hanse, too. They kept staring at each other, the air was suffocating. It went for a while until Chan couldn't take it anymore.

"So, uh," he coughed. "This is Sejun. Sejun, this is Hanse, the owner of that lovebird you met about a week ago."

"Yeah, I remember." They said in unison, and the glare intensified.

Chan coughed again—he did not have a cold. "He's my friend too, and he's here to give you some, uh, thank you gift. For keeping Vivi safe that day."

Sejun frowned. "Okay...?"

"Yeah," Chan nodded enthusiastically. "You will love it—Hanse spend an hour inside the shop just to—"

"Just accept it!" Hanse rushed forward; he practically shoved the brown paper bag he'd been holding the whole time. Sejun accepted it, just because he would drop the bag if he didn't. It was kind of heavy.

Chan witnessed the whole exchange with a repressed smile. "Also, you said you want to say something else?"

Hanse immediately waved his hand. "What, no."

"But, you said earlier—"

"Nah, it's getting late, this vampire needs his beauty sleep," Hanse said curtly. "I've settled my debt—he said he wanted a thank-you gift for keeping Vivi safe, here it is."

Sejun blinked. "I _what_?"

"Oh, right," Hanse continued. "Thank you. I'm leaving now. No, Chan-hyung, I know my way back, it's okay."

And in just a short time, Hanse was already several distances away from them. Chan leaned on the door, watching Sejun's expression slowly change from dazed to infuriation, realizing that Hanse was sort of mocking him. His grip on the paper bag was tightened,

"What's his problem, really?"

+++  
  


**For** Hanse, it was like this.

A week ago, he didn't know Sejun was flipping him, but he did sense that Sejun did something inappropriate, and Hanse wasn't going to give that rude stranger his attention anymore. Besides, he had found Vivi, and that was all that mattered. He fed her the apples all the way back.

"I bet that guy doesn't even know what kind of bird you are," he muttered, stomping his feet as he walked. "You're the best bird in the world, you know that?"

Vivi chirped in return, it made Hanse smiled.

Nothing happened for the rest of his day. It was moderately peaceful, aside from several Vivi-scolding. The real thing happened on the next day, when Chan came around before his and Hanse's first class together. As usual, his routine was to greet the best bird that existed in the world.

Chan could be loud if he wanted to, and combined with Vivi's cheerful pipes, it was quite a commotion. It was nine in the morning, Hanse's class started at ten.

"It's still nine!" Hanse roared from under his pillow. "Give back the duplicate key I gave you!"

"Noo, get up. Let's go to the coffee shop first, I want caffeine."

"Don't you have, like, a boyfriend or something?"

Chan made a dramatic gesture. "He didn't have any class today, plus it's his gym day, I don't want to disturb him."

It woke Hanse up, "Who the heck going to the gym at nine in the morning?"

It was nine past ten. Hanse might as well woke up and showered now if he still wanted to buy the coffee before the class. Groaning, he threw his pillow to Chan's direction before dragging himself to the bathroom.

It was a miracle that twenty-five minutes later, Hanse and Chan managed to arrive at the café. The doorbell jingled when they enter. The pleasant smell of coffee beans instantly filled Hanse's nose.

They went to this café often; it was convenient because it was located right between Hanse's rented room and their campus. Usually, Hanse would chat with the morning shift's cashier, Subin, while he made Hanse's order. But, today's cashier wasn't Subin. Hanse stopped dead in his feet, unsure.

"Chan-hyung, you know my usual, right," Hanse said urgently. "Can you order for me too? I will, uh, someone's calling me."

"Huh," Chan said distractedly, unaware of Hanse's sudden weird act because he was eyeing the menu board. "Okay, yeah, do what you need to do."

"Thanks." And with that, Hanse exited the café.

It was the rude guy who manned the cashier, and Hanse definitely didn't want to meet him now.

Oh, Hanse could spot him anywhere alright. He wouldn't miss the narrow nose, or those thin lips—not _that_ thin, but it wasn't that thick and plump either, it was just _right_ —, or how those dimples, on both cheeks, appeared even when he was only slightly smiling, or—

Hanse cleared his throat. Anyway. Was he a new part-timer here? Why Hanse never saw him before? If he ever met the rude guy before, he would definitely recognize him on the park. Hanse peeked inside, trying to see whether there were any name tags, but he got heart attack instead.

Chan seemed to know the rude guy. To Hanse's horror, Chan high-fived him, a huge smile plastered to his face. The rude guy mirrored Chan's grin, Hanse could see he was talking rapidly while tending what he guessed as Hanse and Chan's order. He didn't know why, but Hanse felt like he was betrayed.

A few minutes later, Chan stepped outside. He gave Hanse his order, still oblivious to Hanse's mini-crisis.

"Did you know who I just meet? It's Seungsik's roommate, he's working here!"

Hanse cringed mentally. "Seungsik-hyung's roommate?"

"Yep. I'll keep coming back here, for sure. Sejun makes the best latte, I definitely won't miss it." Chan sighed dreamily. "You should've met him earlier! He's cool, maybe we can hang out together some time, with Seungsik too—"

Hanse muted Chan's ramble all the way to their first class. Hanse's usual order was a hot café latte, and when Chan spitted out the fact that this rude guy—Sejun—made it excellently, he eyed the lidded cup warily. He was relieved he didn't meet the guy earlier; who knew what Sejun would add inside if he knew the coffee was for Hanse. He'd realized that he was kind of rude during their encounter, but it wasn't like he could help it.

The cup was oddly warm in Hanse's hand—it wasn't odd, actually. It was just Hanse who suddenly very aware that this cup of coffee was made by his archenemy; a Vivi hater. Hanse slowly sipped the hot mixture, readying himself, for some reason Hanse himself didn't know what.

The latte was annoyingly good. It was amazing, in fact. Hanse hated it.

"—se? Hanse? Earth to Hanse?"

"Huh?"

"What," Chan cackled. "Are you that mesmerized by Sejun's latte?"

"No!" Hanse snapped. "It's _so so,_ as expected from a Vivi hater, I should've known—"

Chan blinked, he stopped walking. "A what,"

"Vivi hater," Hanse mumbled. "He's a Vivi hater."

" _What is that supposed to mean."_

"It means exactly like that." Hanse brushed him off. "It's five minutes to our first class, let's just go."

"But, explain—"

"Yeah, yeah," Hanse gruntled. They walked again, faster this time. Then, Hanse added in a low voice, "Hopefully you won't remember about it later."

"Hey, I heard that!"

And, thus, two classes and a lunch break later, Chan was snug on Hanse's bean bag in Hanse's room, cuddling Hanse's pillow, demanding Hanse's explanation. Chan kept bothering him throughout the class—poking him, sending him text messages, throwing small papers—but Hanse refused to satisfy his curiosity.

Earlier, the café latte was emptied fast, much to Hanse's annoyance. Chan pried at the empty cup, but he said nothing. He had to admit that the coffee was good, even better than Subin's.

"Sooo," Chan started after a long minute, because Hanse didn't show any sign to begin the conversation, and Chan was dying to know. "You know Sejun?"

"I don't."

"Huh," Chan raised his eyebrows. "Then, what do you mean by Vivi hater?"

Hanse sighed. "A week ago, Vivi ran away from the house—"

And if Chan's eyes widened, recalling a certain similar incident a week ago, he didn't tell. He kept his mouth mum, pursing his lips throughout Hanse's rant. And he was ranting alright, Hanse explained in too much detail about how Sejun brushed his shoulder and called Vivi an 'it'.

He couldn't hold it longer, though.

"—can you _believe it_? That's how he becomes a Vivi hater." Hanse muttered. "What—why are you laughing!"

Chan sniffed a nonexistent tears. "One week ago, he was rambling, and mad, just like you."

"He's not supposed to be _angry_ —"

"Well, apparently he is kinda upset," Chan cleared his throat, trying to compose himself and sit straighter. "I admit that he was rude to call you—"

"Aha!"

"—a crow owner on your first meeting, but I have to agree with him on that. You prolly had your black shirt on that day"

"Chan-hyung!"

"Besides, there's nothing wrong to have crows as a pet," Chan leaned further back to his beanbag. "It's cool! Maybe I should buy you one."

"Crows are not supposed to be pet—"

"Also, it's not that he hated Vivi," At the mention of her name, Vivi easily fled to Chan's offered forefinger. He began to rub her small head. "Sejun just didn't know how to handle small animals. His shoulders were stiff because he's holding himself very still when Vivi's there."

Hanse grew silent.

"Sejun didn't mean any harm, really," Chan continued, chuckling lightly when Vivi rubbed her head to his finger affectionately. "After he went home that day, he asked me about lovebirds, and he said they were cute."

He knew Chan wouldn't joke about things that made him genuinely upset like this, but Hanse couldn't help but feel wary. "Is that true?"

Chan levelled him, "Why would I lie, honestly."

"Because," Hanse paused. "Because he's Seungsik-hyung's roommate."

"Hanse."

"No. Yes. I know, it's silly." Hanse sighed, he raked his fingers through his not-itchy head. "Okay, so he didn't really mean that whole brushing-his-shoulder-harshly? He just got, what, stiff muscle or something?"

"Yep."

"...okay."

He watched Vivi flew back to her post. Hanse had been slightly overexcited when shopping for bird supplies for the first time. He bought a fancy-looking bird perch, some colourful toys, cute-looking feeder, and other unnecessary things. Vivi loved them, of course, but she loved hand-petting more.

As if sensing his mood, Vivi focused her attention on Hanse and chirped.

"Hanse?"

Okay, Hanse felt slightly guilty now.

"I should apologize and thank him," Hanse mumbled. "I guess."

Chan's face lighted up.

That, until he heard Sejun's comment about him being a vampire and needed to be invited in.

Honestly, Hanse didn't know why he was annoyed by that—it was arguably a harmless joke, something to be laughed off. When Sejun finally appeared on the door, Hanse felt something bubbling up his stomach, something that he wasn't familiar with, and he decided to associate it as a bad thing. Nausea, it must be nausea.

The thing that he had wanted to say was " _thank you, and your latte was amazing."_ but those words died on his lips immediately, somehow.

He met Sejun's eyes (and cheeks, and nose, and perfect lips, and dimples), and shoved the brown paper bag he had been holding. It contained a box of jelly beans, all flavour mixed. Chan had mentioned that Sejun liked sweets. Of course, Hanse wouldn't get him _chocolate_ —it wasn't appropriate (and a little bit intimate, Chan's word) so, jelly beans.

He might or might not stomped his feet all the way back to his rented flat, but Chan (and Sejun) didn't need to know that.

He still didn't know why he was annoyed. It kind of bothered him.

+++

**Sejun** was manning the back counter, fiddling with dirty rags and wiping all the mugs and counter until they were squeaky clean, when the cafe's door opened. Thank god he let Subin took over the cashier for a while; his hands were starting to ache with having to hold hot cups and handing the changes at the same time for hours. He started cleaning things to get away from it—cleaning things that were already clean. He just didn't want to look like a bad employee.

Sejun was just in time to turn his body to see who was the new customer and Subin's excited yell. Oh.

"Hanse-hyung!"

"Hi, Subinnie."

Hanse regarded Sejun's existence with a slight nod before he turned his attention to Subin. Somehow, it was weird seeing him like this. Hanse, he meant. In Sejun's head, he lived as the emo guy, somehow with the annoyed expression planted permanently on his face, and perhaps a messy hair, but not _this_ kind of messy.

He handed some cash, "Sub, get me my usual please."

"Got it," Subin punched the cashier to get Hanse's change. "I'll get it to you, Hyung. You could collapse right here at any time. Corpse will be bad for business."

Hanse laughed at the joke, playfully hitting Subin's hand before he wandered to find unoccupied table. Sejun saw him tripped over his own feet, his hand immediately grabbing the nearest wall, before he proceeded to walk again like nothing had happened.

Exam week was hellish, Sejun knew, but he never actually witnessed someone who got it bad. Seungsik was always a model student—he did stress a bit (who didn't stress out during exam week, really) but his face was eye-bags-free and his hair was as dazzling as usual. Chan, on the other hand, was that kind of student who you never saw him study but somehow he was always in the top three.

He brushed it off. Everyone had their own way, Sejun thought. He would be okay.

Except Hanse wouldn't.

It had been thirty minutes since his arrival, and he already ordered one more latte, two extra shots.

"What the heck," Sejun blurted out. "Can I refuse your order? Look at you, look at your _eyes_ —"

"What do you care anyway," Hanse mumbled. "Come on, Sejun."

"No. I'll give you a normal latte and that's that."

"Fuck." Hanse scratched his head. "Listen, I have this final song I need to submit in one week and I haven't done anything—"

" _Listen_ ," Sejun mimicked Hanse's tone. "Here, and I don't add anything, not even half shot. Your—"

Hanse slammed the money on the counter and went back to his table, the latte untouched. Five minutes later, Sejun saw him exited the café in long steps, looking furious.

"Well, shit."

Sejun knew this was a bad idea, but he didn't really have any choice. He sat on one of Hanse's bean bag in a stiff manner, his eyes wandered around the room.

Why did he agree to babysit a very cheerful lovebird? Oh, right, he owed an apology to Hanse for ruining his day that time. Why did he agree to watch over a bird instead of doing easier favour? Oh, right, he was friend with Heo freaking Chan.

Somehow he was roped to watch over Hanse's bird while the owner was finishing his final assignment. Chan said he went to a studio to record things and such—Chan didn't really explain it well, and Sejun honestly didn't want to pry. All he had in mind now was a countless scenario of what could possibly go wrong. He would blame it all to Chan, obviously.

Sejun had arrived earlier this morning, greeted with a grumpy Hanse who shoved a piece of paper with Vivi care written inside. Hanse's last words were "don't break anything or I will skin you" before he slammed the door and out, leaving Sejun and Vivi inside.

"It's only me and you now," Sejun said to the bird, perched comfortably on her post. "Do you remember me?"

Vivi chirped happily, and for a split second, Sejun was afraid she would suddenly fly to his shoulder again. Fortunately, she didn't.

Sejun eyed her warily when he sunk himself to Hanse's bean bag.

Contrary to what he had in mind, babysitting a bird was relatively easy. If he ignored things like "Vivi is a _she_ not an it" on the first point, scribbled in red—mostly what he should do was keeping the water feeder full, make sure that he fed her on time, and watching her so she wouldn't fly outside.

He had five hours until Vivi's lunchtime. He also didn't know how long Hanse would be copped up in the studio. It looked like he would have plenty of free time, Sejun groaned. He should've brought his Switch.

At some point, Sejun fell asleep. He had been watching videos on his phone, feeding Vivi, watching more video while he ate his own lunch—he didn't really move away from the beanbags. Vivi was behaving so good—Sejun doubted that this was the same bird that had asked for hardcore petting weeks ago.

He looked at the clock. It had been six hours since Hanse's departure. What did he do for his final assignment?

Stretching his body and yawn, Sejun didn't feel like watching more Youtube videos to pass the time.

"Hey, little birdie,"

Vivi didn't respond. She was busy grooming her feathers. Sejun walked near her post but still keeping a polite distance between them. He couldn't say he already used with the bird's presence with only one-day interaction, but at least he was prepared now.

"Hey, Vivi, sorry for last time, okay?" Sejun huffed. "I don't know your owner was so upset about this whole misunderstanding thing, and yet he's still entrusting me to watch you today."

Vivi stopped her grooming, blinking to Sejun's direction. She was a cute bird, Sejun admitted it. He wasn't really a fan of pet birds, but he could changed his mind. Slowly, Sejun reached to stroke Vivi's head with his forefinger. He'd expected to be bitten, but she didn't. Instead, she chirruped enthusiastically, bobbing her head up and down.

"Wow, wow, calm down now," Sejun laughed. "You're really easy to befriend, yeah? I wonder why your owner is not."

Vivi's chatter sounded like a complain, and Sejun backpedalled.

"Yes, no, I'm sorry, it's just—I don't know how to talk to him! He's not as easy as Chan-hyung, I can't just pull him into a bro-hug or something—" He trailed off, his finger still stroking Vivi's head softly.

Sejun didn't know how long he had been standing up like that—dozing off while petting a bird. He jumped when the door opened, retracting his hand when he realized that it was Hanse.

"Uh, hi."

Hanse didn't look surprised or annoyed, Sejun thought. It was... something.

"I don't expect you'll be here this long," Hanse raised his eyebrows, putting down his bag. It looked heavy. "Thank you, I guess?"

"I owe you apology for that day when I refused your two-shot coffee," Sejun shrugged. "I was just really concerned, and your face was literally corpse-like—"

"Yes, I know, shush," Hanse pinched his nose bridge. "At this rate, I'm going to make you babysat her again because I'm annoyed, again."

Sejun watched Hanse called his bird with such familiarity that he envied. Vivi fled to Hanse's shoulder, sat there, and made herself similar to green and yellow coloured marshmallow.

"Sorry," Sejun said quietly. "I don't mind, tho."

Now, Hanse looked surprised.

"You're not?"

Sejun shook his head. "She's cute."

 _And the best way to befriend you_ , Sejun added in his head. Someday, he would admit this to Hanse, but not now.

+++

**Hanse** was about to open the door, but he stopped when he heard Sejun's voice. He was... talking to Vivi. No—he was "confessing" to her. Who confessed his sins to a bird? Sejun, apparently.

Truthfully, Hanse thought watching his bird while he was away would be some sort of "punishment" for Sejun. Copped up in a small studio apartment with a bird that he hated? It was perfect. Chan had guaranteed that Sejun wouldn't harm Vivi, and if he did—well, Hanse would hunt him wherever he went.

Then, the said person was apologizing to his bird. And _then_ , the said person just said that his bird was cute. Hanse didn't know if he wanted to cry or laugh.

"Really?" Hanse raised his eyebrows. " _Really?_ "

"She's cute when she's not trying to attack me," Sejun quietly said.

"She's not—"

"Yeah, she's just asking for pets, I know now."

"—yes."

Seeing that Hanse didn't try to debate him again, it seemed like Sejun gained his confidence. He went to stroke Vivi's head again. This time, he even tried to caress her beaks softly.

"I suppose you're actually not a bad person," Hanse mumbled, but loud enough for Sejun to heard him. "Our first meeting sucks, don't try to deny that, but, let's try again?

"Hello, I'm Hanse, music production major, second year. Chan-hyung's friend, I guess." Hanse held out his hand, feeling nervous all of a sudden. He could see Sejun's surprised face (he didn't really conceal it at the first place). There was a hint of excitement there, and Hanse believed it was genuine.

Sejun shook Hanse's hand, swung it lightly. "I'm Sejun! Business major, third year, and I work at that café near our campus, yeah? Nice to meet you!"

"Likewise," Hanse grinned.

"Now that you're well and your exam's finished," Sejun oddly turned his attention back to Vivi. "I can, uh, treat you to that two shot latte."

"Promise me you'll actually give me two shot."

"No! It's bad for your body, I swear to god—"

Hanse snickered. He listened as Sejun rambled about tired students going in and out from the café with the most ridiculous coffee request. He was petting Vivi all the time.

Maybe Hanse could do with this.

"It's a date, then."

"—and the amount of sugar—excuse me, what?"

Hanse smiled, ear to ear, "It's a date."

The blush Hanse got from Sejun's face could replace all of his previous annoyance.


End file.
